S&W 625-JM Catastrophic Failure/Accident

[xcpd69]

If you had a high primer then it may have gone off which might have caused this failure. When the round being fired went off the round next to it also went off due to a high primer already being in contact with the frame.

I'm thankful that you're uninjured and here to tell us about it.

Joni, I think you may be a winner.

A high primer, in a cartridge adjacent to the one being fired, slamming into the recoil shield, COULD possibly detonate and being blocked by the frame, the bullet would cause the kaboom.

It does appear that more than one cartridge detonated. Possibly with the high primer detonation, BOTH bullets reached the end of the chambers nearly simultaneously, with neither as a result getting a clear "shot" at the forcing cone, causing a double kaboom.

I'm no expert, just an armchair commando. Take my opinions for what they are worth.....

 

[cp1969]

I don't think so.

For a high-primer to be detonated by recoil, that would mean recoil has to be occurring. That would mean a bullet is already on its way out the barrel. That cylinder (the one aligned with the barrel) would not have vanished, such as this one did, nor would the brass be destroyed in the fashion it was.

 

[2hawk]

... I had shot 30-40rds and on the 6th shot of my cylinder I felt a jerk downward and felt something whistle past my head...

Nope, not a high primer...

 

[Beemerguy53]

I had another conversation with my friend the ballistics engineer. Most interesting...

He looked at the photos of this destroyed 625 and explained that the topstrap of a revolver, being much stronger than the cylinder, would be the last thing to fail as the gun comes apart over a few microseconds, which explains why the chambers blew out.

He also told me that over his career he has been aware of hundreds of instances where a firearm of some sort came apart; he has read many of the reports associated with these accidents; and he has personally investigated a number of them. Without commenting on this specific case, due to the lack of data, he pointed out that he is aware of only one instance where a gun failed due to a mechanical or metallurgical problem; in every other case there was some human error that caused the failure.

Food for thought for all of us...

 

[gunztraydeer]

JM failure

Glad you are ok. Any chance the round before the accident might have been a squib load and the bullet lodged in the throat? That could have caused a chamber rupture and since you found a bullet at your feet ?????? I don't know, just like everyone else, I can only guess

 

[RGPM1A]

After reading all of the posts I think one of three things happened:

A too light powder charge - the OP said that he could not seat a bullet with a double charge. A round with too light a charge can detonate. Many reloading manuals mention this phenomenon. I could easily see this happening if a piece of material (like from the seal under the cap of the powder bottle) or an insect got into the powder hopper, charge bar or powder funnel in the powder die. Also if the cases are cycled in the reloader too vigorously between the charging station and the seating station powder can be tossed from the case leading to a low charge weight.

A bullet wasn't crimped properly and recoil set it back in the case being fired increasing the case pressure beyond safe levels.

Some cleaning media was stuck in the case before loading it. The media caused over pressure in the case.

If the round did in fact detonate it would explain the adjacent rounds going off too.

 

[Fuego]

As unlikely as it seems, you just cannot rule out the possibility of an overcharge.

In my personal experience, using a RCBS Rockchucker, one at a time, slow and careful as I can be, checking powder levels in the loading block before seating the bullet, I have had a squib load.

Fortunately, I realized it, and it did not destroy my revolver.

I must have loaded 500 rounds that day, and several months later, out of the 10 boxes I loaded, one was a squib. That makes all the other rounds from that batch suspect.

It was embarassing, to say the least. And humbling. I carry a copper rod in my range bag so I was able to knock the bullet back out of the bore, no harm done except to my pride and self confidence.
For social work, I always carry factory ammunition.

"A man's got to know his limitations." ~ H. Calahan

 

[JMusic]

Your kidding or have me mistaken for another guy. Lets be specific here. I'm a mod on gun sites also. And I see nothing in my statement that deserved this.

This was meant as a private message to the mods and has nothing to do with the statements above. I just can't delete it. I was banned for the only other statement I made on this thread for being argumentative.

jmusic

 

[KurtC]

Years ago I blew up a model 25. It looked exactly like this 625. I was using light plinking loads, made one at a time on a single stage press.

We attributed it to the detonation theory, possibly having used too light of a charge. (I forget what powder i was using, but when trying to "double charge" a cartridge, it was impossible to seat the bullet).

However, it is my understanding is that no one has ever been able to intentinally replicate the "detonation" theory with a handgun cartridge.

 

[cp1969]

I recall back in the '70s or '80s reading about detonation problems associated with using reduced loads of H4831 or IMR4831. But I don't remember anything along those lines regarding handgun powders.

 

[cp1969]

A bullet wasn't crimped properly and recoil set it back in the case being fired increasing the case pressure beyond safe levels.

Recoil tends to pull the bullets out of the case, not set them back.

 

[Mikie]

The Dillon 550 has manual indexing. Is it possible you double cranked the handle, which double-charged the one case?

 

[VAdoublegunner]

A double charge is always the most likely possibility in these scenarios.

Double bullets being loaded is another, but is pretty impossible in a 45 ACP. There was an article in Handloader a couple of years ago about two 45 Colt SAAs blowing up during the same range session due to double bullets being loaded when using a Dillon 550.

How about an obstruction inside the case? If you had a piece of 22LR brass in the case, or other obstruction like tumbling media, which may move aside enough to allow depriming, it may have the same effect as an excessive charge by reducing the case volume. I have run into that on occasion. It can be difficult to see. I doubt a larger case could be the culprit because it would interfere with depriming.

 

[Iron Sight]

Lets say the cause is a way overcharged cartridge.

What is it when 3 chambers of the revolver are exposed and the top strap of the revolver dissapears.................What causes the damage to the empty brass cases adjacent to the expolding fired round?

 

[VAdoublegunner]

My guess would be that the force from the exploding cartridge ruptures the adjacent cylinders as well as the top of its cylinder and the top strap. The cylinder walls all have equal thickness except for the bottom. Shrapnel or gas from the ruptured cylinder could easily destroy the brass of the adjacent rounds, either igniting the powder with the flashover or just dispersing it and dropping the bullet out with little force.

 

[ColColt]

There seems to be a lot of conjecture on what caused this problem. In all likelihood to me it sure apperars to have been a double charge but, I wasn't there.

Progressive presses are fine for perhaps most but for me, I'm sticking with my old RCBS Jr. Slow but sure and to date(knock on wood) I've never experienced a double charge, double bullet or squib load.

 

[ghitch75]

i know it's an old thread.....did the OP here back from Smith?.....think of buyin' one...

 

[Groo01]

Groo here
We are having way to many of these K-booms...
I keep going back to a to light charge that gives you a hangfire
and when the bullet sticks in the forcing cone , the base is in the
chamber causing a plug when the powder at last lights limiting the
pressure to the cylinder.

 

[scooter123]

I haven't read the full thread but IMO this was caused by a double or even triple charge and nothing else. It take a considerable ammount of energy to blow one of these revolvers in half and even the most careful people can make a mistake when distracted. In addition the 45ACP is normally a low pressure caliber so even firing into a squib with a standard charge won't generate this level of energy. Somewhere on You Tube there is a video of an attempt to blos up a 686 with a squibbed barrel and firing a fully charged 357 Magnum into a barrel packet with 6 squibs still didn't manage to blow the gun up, all it did was shoot 3 of the squibs out of the barrel and jam the cylinder solid. Yeah, the barrel was hosed and the frame likely bent but the gun didn't blow up.

Bottomline, if you can actually find a 625JM you really don't have to worry about it blowing up unless you get a bad load.

 

[ghitch75]

if you can actually find a 625JM you really don't have to worry about it blowing up unless you get a bad load.

i found one LINB and i have wanted one for a while know.....this is the only one on the net that has went BOOOOMM!!